There are many spiritual gifts. Paul talks about them in 1 Corinthians—speaking in a way that others understand, prophecy, teaching, preaching, and healing. We can think of all of these gifts as a beautiful bouquet of flowers—each flower representing a different gift. The church, or body of believers can be thought of in this way. There are many different flowers, each one contributing their beauty to the overall whole.
Any spiritual community is like this. It is the great variety of colors, shapes, and sizes that make each bouquet unique. What they all have in common, however, is love. Without love, the bouquet falls apart. Love is what holds it all together.
It reminds me of a story that Jesus told about the vine and branches. He said that he was the vine and we are the branches. We must all stay connected or we will wither and die. It is the life-giving sap from the vine that keeps the branches alive and fruitful. The sap is like love.
Love is compassionate, understanding, patient, kind, and forgiving. It is always looking for the best in others and doesn’t keep score. It nurtures and feeds the soul. It sees the potential in others. Love is the life-power, the presence of the Spirit that makes all the difference in the spiritual health of a community.
When you stop to think about it, earth is a spiritual community. How well are we doing with the different qualities of love? How beautiful is our bouquet? How well do we appreciate one another and see the potential and beauty in each soul?
If we see the apparent lack of the health of our community, if we notice that we are not flourishing, we can be certain that we have disconnected from our Source and that the sap of love is not flowing through us as a whole. What our planet needs is healing love. Our connection with Source was severed. Christ built a connection back to God. The choice is now ours. What are we going to do with the opportunities we now have to rebuild our spiritual connections with God and to one another?
Everyday we individually make choices to be either a conduit for healing love or to act selfishly. Just for today, think how you might become a channel for healing love to our planet
Comments